A Second Chance at Redemption
by sentientInsanity
Summary: This might be referred to as Deathstuck? Eridan dies in a car crash and is introduced to his new existence as a spirit by Feferi, who drowned a while ago. However, Eridan is trapped there by a regret he had in life, and in order to figure that out, he enters Sollux's dreams, providing him with the solace he could never give him among the living. EriSol.
1. Chapter 1

It was very boring being dead.

At first Eridan didn't notice the difference. In the first few days after his car had crashed, he didn't even know he had died. There was no white light, no feathery wings, no rebirth, none of that. He was just driving in his car one moment and the next he was standing beside the wreckage, looking down at it and thinking that his boss would murder him if he was late for work one more time. But after the third day, when he tried to ask his friend when the next bus was leaving, he noticed that his friend couldn't hear him.

"Hey, I asked you when the next bus was. Are you deaf?" Eridan practically shouted. His friend only looked up to turn the page of his newspaper and then went back to reading the sports section.

"He can't hear you." said a voice from behind him. Eridan turned around to see a frail woman, pale as the moon, perhaps even a bit blue, wearing a bathing suit and a beach wrap, her hair still tousled from the water. Eridan thought this was a bit strange, his town being very far from the nearest beach.

"Feferi Peixes. I drowned in Hayden Lake 20 years ago. I'm dead. And so are you."

"I am not. I still have to get to work, I owe two down payments on my house, I'm going to-"

"If you can see me, you're dead." said Feferi. "And I'm here to help you, if you want my help."

Eridan just stared at this strange, pale woman, standing in the middle of the bus stop wearing a bathing suit while people passed by her thinking nothing of it. But he still didn't believe her. And then the bus pulled up.

"Don't believe me? Look in that mirror right there." Feferi said, pointing to the rearview mirror of the bus. Eridan stuck his head in front of it and took a peek, but there was nothing to be seen, just the tempered glass of the bus stop wall and the dusty street behind him.

"See? You're dead. When you look in that mirror you see what everyone else can see." Feferi announced. Eridan must have began to panic, because Feferi placed her hand on his shoulder. "Shhhh. If you're here, you're here because you have a regret that is holding you back. You just have to figure out what that regret is and somehow either complete it or move past it so that you can move on." Feferi smiled. "Until then, get comfortable. I'll be your guide."

"Regret? I don't have any regrets." Eridan said. "That's fuckin ridiculous."

"If that was true, you wouldn't be here." Feferi said. "Now come with me."

Feferi led Eridan to an old abandoned warehouse and sat cross-legged on the ground, cocking her head to the side. "Now how did you die?"

"I don't kno- oh. It was probably a car crash."

"I can understand that. You have blood dripping down your face." Feferi pointed. Eridan instinctively wiped at his cheek, but Feferi sighed. "You know it won't come off."

"My head is intact, right?" Eridan asked.

"Yep." Feferi said. "You're practically the Miss America of dead people. I had someone come in here who was beheaded the other day. Factory accident. They were carrying their head under their arm like that old kids' tale about the horseman. Be glad you're not that guy."

Eridan nodded grimly in agreement. "So," Feferi said. "Do you have any idea what that one regret is?"

Eridan gazed off in the distance. He could see one house in particular, with a single lit window and a tall, skinny silhouette sinking down onto the bed in a slumped sitting position and placing his head in his hands. Eridan knew he was the only one who noticed this. Feferi was still grinning at him, blinking owlishly from behind oversized swim goggles.

"I think I have a good idea," he said, glancing back at that familiar house, but the light had already gone out.


	2. Chapter 2

Late that night, Feferi showed him around the town. She took him around the various establishments that her various friends haunted and he even got to meet the headless man, who held up his head in a sort of mock salute as the two of them passed it. He was even wearing sunglasses. Eridan had to smile at this, even though it wasn't funny; they were pointy and sat askew on his face as he held his head up in greeting.

"Hi, Dirk!" bubbled Feferi, oblivious. Eridan agreed then and there that Feferi was quite like a goldfish.

Feferi headed up to the entrance to the old pine forest where Eridan would always go for walks on his days off. She looked into the pitch darkness where the trees disappeared off into the distance, and Eridan looked at her, barely even seeing anything in the darkness, and he expected her to say something deep or meaningful, but instead she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted into the trees.

"ARADIA MEGIDO, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE OUT HERE AN HOUR AGO. GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE, WE HAVE A NEW ONE!"

Another figure stumbled out of the trees, a curvy, powerful, pale woman dressed in a black, floor length ball gown that was ripped and tangled at the bottom, and a bloodstain on the bodice, right in the middle of her chest. When she smiled at him, however, it held genuine warmth.

"Aradia. You could say I'm the welcoming committee. And you are?"

"Eridan." he said, a bit shaken by the day's events.

"So I suppose Feferi's explained why you're here?" Aradia said.

"I guess." Eridan said. "Apparently we're all here because of regret?"

"So she told you more than I'd expected." Aradia patted Feferi's shoulder, and Feferi beamed. "All she told Dirk was that he didn't need to wear sunglasses if his head was cut off. She's learning."

"Aradia is the leader, if you can call her that. She regulates all of the activity of spirits in the area. We mostly go to her for advice, though, she can't really control much seeing as we're dead." Feferi admitted.

"I do make sure things don't get out of hand, make sure no possessions occur in the area and no spirits become restless enough to become poltergeists. I'm a peacekeeper of sorts." Aradia said.

"Can we head back soon? We've seen enough dead people today to throw a small party." Eridan interrupted.

"Excuse me, I am in charge of all corpse parties around here." Aradia laughed. "Only kidding, guys."

Feferi giggled a little. "See you later." Aradia waved as they headed out of the forest.  
As Eridan approached that one familiar house, he noticed that the shutters were drawn in the attic window, but the light was on. As he passed it, the light flickered off, leaving the window completely dark.

"Hey, Feferi, you can go on ahead, I'll catch up to you." Eridan said. Feferi looked at him strangely, but shrugged and continued on. Eridan approached the front door and placed his hand against it, feeling the yield of solid wood. However, when he pushed harder against it, and concentrated, his fingers passed through it and he could slip past the door unnoticed.

He stood in the front hallway, shaking his head to clear it, then continued up the stairs. Someone was already in the attic loft, lying in bed, half-covered by blankets, fast asleep. His dark brown hair, cropped short, was in his eyes, and his glasses were on his bedside table, neatly folded next to his dumb bumblebee alarm clock that Eridan had always tried to convince him to burn.

"Sollux," Eridan breathed. Eridan noticed that his bed was still made up on the left side. If he tried to brush Sollux's bangs out of his face, would he notice? If he lay down next to him and wrapped his arms around him, would he pay him any attention or just blame it on the wind, or the air conditioning, or some other human explanation. Sollux was obviously still human, after all, and he needed to get over his dead sort of-boyfriend, because hell, Eridan hadn't even told Sollux he loved him before he got in his car and drove off to work in the middle of a thunderstorm...

And before Eridan could stop himself, he was reaching over and brushing Sollux's forehead, trying to brush his bangs back from his eyes. But when his fingers met Sollux's temples, they went through them, and Eridan's vision fractured and he _saw._

_Sollux was sitting on the dock in Maine where they spent their summer together. The entire ocean was curved in on itself, though, and it appeared like he was sitting in a soap bubble, or a fishbowl. The entire ocean was burning. Sollux stood up on the dock, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to jump..._

Eridan pulled back his fingers as if he, himself, was burned. He had actually seen inside Sollux's dreams. He felt like he had somehow invaded Sollux's privacy, this went beyond reading diaries, he seemed to be fucking Sollux over in the deepest realms of his consciousness. But Sollux didn't even seem to notice, he continued sleeping, his hand resting, palm up on the pillow and his fingers occasionally twitching. Eridan hesitated for a moment, then brushed his lips against his sleeping boyfriend's forehead, so lightly that he couldn't enter his dreams again, before exiting through the window to join Feferi and the rest of the dead.


	3. Chapter 3

After all that, Eridan still wasn't able to sleep most nights. Sure, being dead, he didn't need to sleep all that often, but he would still have liked to catch a break from all of his thoughts.

He found himself wandering the neighborhood, far away from where Feferi rested, sometimes passing the house where Sollux slept and feeling the strangest sensation in the pit of his stomach, not quite a full-fledged feeling, but still there. It felt like there were wings beating in his insides, tiny ones, and fast, like the wings of a hummingbird, struggling to break free.

And that's how he found himself slipping into Sollux's room again and coming across Sollux, fast asleep again, his body curled around a pillow and his bed still made up on the left side. He lay down on the mattress next to Sollux, their bodies thisclose but still not touching, not daring to touch...

Slowly, surely, after many minutes had gone by and he wasn't content with just laying there, he wrapped his arms around Sollux's waist and buried his face in his neck. All at once he had the strangest sensation of falling, falling into Sollux's mind, into his dreams, into him, being so surrounded by him because he was a part of his mind now...

Sollux smiled slightly, held his pillow closer, and slept.

[][][][][][]

This time, Eridan wasn't simply viewing Sollux's dream, he was a part of it. He found himself standing a few paces behind where Sollux sat, alone, on the sand of a lush tropical beach, dipping his feet in the ocean. But something was off, as it is in all dreams. The sand was ice-white, like ground glass, and the ocean was jade green. It seemed like a child had picked the color scheme, a child who had lost some of the crayons in his Crayola box.

But Eridan didn't notice that. He was too busy noticing Sollux's figure, silhouetted against the jade-green ocean, who had begun to put his face in his hands and cry...

"Sol!" Eridan called out, running to him and kneeling by his side. He took his hand and kissed his face where the tear had fallen, watching his expression grow from confused to shocked. He then drew back, watching Sollux's puzzled expression, and pressed his lips to his forehead, then tilted his head upwards and kissed him on the mouth. Sollux leaned into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Eridan's neck, and ran his tongue over Eridan's bottom lip.  
He then pulled back, so many words on his lips, but Eridan silenced them all with another kiss.

"Shhh." he said. "I'm here for you."

Eridan wrapped Sollux in his arms and pulled him down next to him in the sand. They lay there on the beach, sometimes kissing, sometimes holding each other, always embracing, until Sollux finally spoke up.

"I thought you were dead, Eridan."

"I am." he said with a small, sad smile. "And this may all be a dream, but I guarantee that we'll see each other again."

[][][][][][]

Sollux's alarm clock buzzed, and he reached for it with the groggy, zombielike grope of someone who's been deprived of a couple extra hours of sleep. Eridan, cast out of his dreams by the shrill buzz of the alarm, sat on the edge of the bed and watched Sollux for a second.

Did he remember the dream? Did he remember the message? Would Eridan have to go into his dreams for a second time?

But then, he noticed something. Sollux still clutched his pillow to his chest, but he held it even tighter than before, and he was smiling slightly, just enough to be noticeable.

Yep, he remembered. Eridan made a mental note to keep visiting him.

[][][][][][]

"He's not back yet?" asked Feferi. "This is a new record for him!"

"Give him time." said Aradia. "I can sense that he's been preoccupied. He should be returning shortly."

"Yeah," said Feferi, pouting, "but I'm worried for him. If he keeps being this GRUMPY, he'll NEVER get anything done."

"I see." Aradia looked out into the distance. "Well, you have nothing to worry about."

"Why's that?" Feferi asked, frowning.

"Because he's coming back now."

Eridan strode up to the two of them, waved, and sat down on a fallen tree across from them. Feferi raised her eyebrow at him.

"What's got you all EXCITED all of a sudden, huh? Is there a lovely lady waiting for you that I should know about? Or a lucky fellow?" Feferi's voice grew in pitch until she was practically squealing.

"Calm down, Fef, it's not like that at all." Eridan said. "Just, if I'm out at night for a long period of time, don't check on me."

"I KNEW it!" Feferi squealed.

"Calm down, you two." said Aradia. "You may go where you choose, as long as you do not disturb the living."

"Thank you, Ara." Eridan said, and left the two women alone to sit by himself in a clearing outside the woods.


	4. Chapter 4

Eridan visited Sollux every night that week. He could tell that it wasn't doing Sollux as much good as it was doing him. Sure, Sollux got the comfort of seeing him in a dream, but they were only dreams to him. He had to go about every day knowing he'd lost Eridan.

And then one day, Eridan went a bit too far.

He visited Sollux's dreams per usual. This time, Sollux was walking in a busy city street surrounded by faceless strangers. He looked worried and a little bit scared. Eridan ran to catch up to him, gripping his hand and pulling him into a nearby shop, which they recognized as the smoothie shop that they ordered frappes in when they were in New York last year. Eridan felt a strange pang of longing, but a smile stretched over Sollux's face, after all, he was dreaming.

"Hey, Eridan, do you want anything?" Sollux asked, approaching the counter.

"Um. Yeah. Strawberry banana." he muttered, trying to think of the most generic smoothie he could.

Sollux ordered their smoothies and they went to go sit at a booth, but before the smoothies could come out, there was a violent buzzing sound and they were both jolted out of the dream. Eridan found himself lying on the floor next to the bed and Sollux was siting up, pounding his alarm with his fist, his hair a frizzy halo of bedhead. He blinked with bicolor eyes. God, he was gorgeous. Eridan wished he could stay with him for longer.

Or maybe he could.

Soon, Sollux was driving to work, and Eridan was in the backseat, invisible to him, but still taking in all that was Sollux. Sollux left the car, and Eridan followed, pausing outside the entrance to Sollux's workplace. It felt wrong, doing this, but he still wanted to see him. But eventually he entered, and walked for a while in the halls of the office, his footsteps weightless, until he found Sollux's studio. There he perched on a filing cabinet, watching him work until he closed out for the night.

As he left Sollux's office, he was suddenly aware of a presence behind him. He was close to the car before a hand pulled him back. Icy nails raked across his face, and Aradia gripped his chin, pulling him close to her, where she practically screamed at him, her nails still digging into his forearm.

"Don't. Interfere. With the living!" she shrieked, pushing him back with intense force. He hit another car in the lot, and the alarm went off, startling Sollux, who dropped his keys.

"Did I do that?" he muttered.

"I'm sorry!" Eridan cried, but Aradia was upon him in a second, viciously backhanding him.

"He can't hear you. Can't see you. Why are you interfering? It won't do him any good. Leave him alone!" Aradia shrieked, each syllable punctuated with some kind of physical assault on Eridan's body. She drew back her fist for another punch, but a hand wrapped around it.

"That's enough, Aradia." said Feferi, her face dead serious. "I think he knows what he did."

Feferi walked between them, and with her protection, they headed home together.


End file.
